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Tennis Player Development: The Numbers Game

“Every Russian Schoolboy Knows…” is a concept that was introduced yesterday. The Russians and Soviet Union dominated the international chess world championships for almost 50 years. As a community, they were simply better than everybody else. Soviet propaganda would assert that the dominance was a reflection of intellectual superiority. Others would point to the efficacy of the chess knowledge, training, and mentorship available in Russia. While that is certainly a part of it, it is also an undeniable fact that the sheer numbers of people that were formally and systematically taught to play chess was also a factor. The high levels of participation dramatically increased the odds that prodigies naturally skilled in chess would be identified. It was a numbers game.